Archives for February 16, 2014

The Grand Ole Opry House is holding a huge celebration for their 40th Anniversary, and YoYoNashville will be part of the festivities!

On March 15th and 16th, 2014, the Opry is throwing a party that will include music, backstage tours, and live entertainment and Nashville’s yoyo club has been invited to partake in the festivities. To commemorate the legendary Opry patriarch, Roy Acuff, and his on stage yoyo antics, the venue is hosting a 2 day yo-yo-a-thon and 1970’s-era fixed axle contests. In 1974, President Nixon made a visit to the grand opening of the new home of the Opry where Roy Acuff gave him an impromptu yo-yo lesson. The President jokingly offered to Acuff ” I’ll stay here and try to learn how to use the yo-yo; you go up and be President, Roy!”

“As part of the event, the Opry will partner with Hands On Nashville and Habitat For Humanity of Greater Nashville to celebrate the Opry House’s iconic Nixon/Acuff yo-yo lesson and raise funds in support of both organizations with an Opry House Yo-Yo-A-Thon. Opry staffers, artists and volunteers from Hands On Nashville and Habitat For Humanity of Greater Nashville will take turns yo-yoing in the Opry Plaza throughout the weekend. “

There will be commemorative wooden yo-yos available to use and buy. All yoyo players are welcome to come and help raise funds for Hands on Nashville and Habitat for Humanity of Greater Nashville (and throw a lot of fixed axle yo-yo). Contact Mark Allen or join the YoYoNashville group on Facebook for more details and to sign up for these events.

The YoYoNashville yoyo club is free to attend, and generally meets every third Saturday each month at Rocketown.

The catalog picture we posted didn’t give a very clear view, but now we have a much better look at YoYoFactory’s second wave of their Glow Collection. This batch are in white plastic with a glow additive…which makes for a much more attractive yoyo under regular light than that weird green that most glow plastics come in.

Rounding out our advance coverage of yoyo offerings at the 2014 International Toy Fair is a peek at what YoYoFactory will be showing at their booth.

The new catalog is our first look at the upcoming release of the standard version of the Hubstack yoyo. With the Afterglow version shipping to stores at the end of the month, we know the specs and know what to expect. The Hubstack will be responsive out of the box, and is expected to retail for around $20.

The Preview page of the catalog is where we get to the good stuff! We get a first look at the Glow Collection Round 2, which features white glow-in-the-dark plastic versions of the Northstar, Loop 1080, and Hubstack. These are going to look great, and should be shipping to stores around the end of the month.

We also get a look at the next version of the signature model for Harold Owens III…the Too H.O.T., due in March. Refined weight distribution and a new profile should make this a top-notch competitive yoyo.

Jason Lee is getting a unique signature model…the Detour. We don’t have any specs, but this model appears to be based on the Supernova, with feedback from Jason. This is Jason’s first signature model that wasn’t a color way of something else…FINALLY! One of the most gifted natural yoyo players in the world, it’s about time we got a Jason Lee yoyo.

And coming this spring, looks like we have a new signature model for Patrick Borgerding, the CYBORG, and a new signature design for Paul Kerbel! As usual, I think we can expect great stuff from YoYoFactory this year in the metal yoyo department.

And finally, we have YoYoFactory doing what they do best: bringing new players into the sport. YoYoFactory seems to have refined their in-store teaching program, called PLAY, and created their own tiered learning system for retailers. Combined with constant touring by YoYoFactory demonstrators as well as local support, PLAY looks to be the big winner for 2014 in terms of a major manufacturer working to create new yoyo players.